UFC's longtime fight studio just outside Las Vegas reopened this month with double the crowd capacity, a bigger fight floor, and a new corporate name plastered across the building: Meta Apex. The renovated facility hosted its first event, UFC Fight Night: Gamrot vs. Salkilld, this past Saturday, and starting today, fans can buy $25 tickets to watch the next season of Dana White's Contender Series in person.
The facility in Enterprise, Nevada has operated since June 2019, when UFC converted a former slot machine manufacturing headquarters into what was then called UFC Apex, according to WSMV. UFC bought the 130,000-square-foot building in October 2018 for $40 million and poured in another $30 million before it opened, per Wikipedia. The site sits next to UFC headquarters and the UFC Performance Institute, and it became the promotion's operational backbone during closed-door events in the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Six-Week Remodel Ahead of Fight Night
The summer 2026 renovation expanded the venue's spectator seating from roughly 500 up to 1,000, adding new spectator stands and a VIP area, according to Essentially Sports. That work wrapped just in time for the renovated space to debut with UFC Vegas 120 this past Saturday, which delivered seven finishes on the newly remodeled fight floor, Yardbarker reported. The event capped six weeks of facility upgrades.
Fights inside the venue still take place in a smaller, 25-foot-wide Octagon rather than the standard 30-foot cage used in bigger arenas, a dimension that historical fight data shows tends to produce higher striking volume and faster finishes, per the same Wikipedia entry. The compact cage was originally adopted for space efficiency inside what was designed as a television studio rather than a traditional arena.
$25 Tickets Open the Door to Public Fans
UFC announced that tickets for Season 10 of Dana White's Contender Series at the renovated facility will be sold directly to the public for $25 starting today, according to UFC. The tickets go through AXS, with a limit of eight per person. Between its 2019 opening and January 2026, the building hosted nearly 200 live combat events, including more than 110 UFC Fight Nights and 70 episodes of Dana White's Contender Series, per Sherdog.
Meta's Name and Technology Baked Into the Building
The rebranding traces back to January, when UFC CEO Dana White announced a five-year naming rights deal making Meta the promotion's Official Fan Technology Partner, a step that followed an earlier fan-technology agreement between the two companies in 2025, according to Sherdog. Under that deal, Meta Apex is designed to weave artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and wearable technology such as Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses directly into fight broadcasts and live fan experiences, per LowKick MMA.
The partnership followed close alignment between the two companies' leadership: White was appointed to Meta's board of directors in 2025, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is an active mixed martial arts practitioner, LowKick MMA noted. White announced the rebrand across social media following his board appointment.
No Plans for a Full-Size Arena, UFC Says
UFC leadership has repeatedly said the renovation was designed strictly as a 1,000-seat broadcast studio, pushing back on rumors that the venue would eventually grow into a 5,000-to-10,000-seat arena, according to Sherdog. Executives have emphasized that the venue is meant to keep its intimate, broadcast-studio feel even as it opens up to more paying spectators and adds the larger event floor now in place.
